So, after I posted about frosting our fire log with bacon grease from my freezer, a lot of you had questions like, “Why in the world do you keep bacon grease in your freezer??”.
Sadly, I don’t have a fantastic answer…I don’t really cook with bacon grease or use it for anything. I usually just keep a takeout container in the freezer and add bacon grease or any other kind of rendered fat (like beef fat or chicken fat) until the container is full.
And then I throw it away.
Yep. That was kind of anti-climactic, wasn’t it?
Up until now, I haven’t really be able to come up with a green way to dispose of grease/fat, since it’s not good for compost and it really shouldn’t be poured down the drain. But of course, I now know that it’s at least good for getting stubborn logs to burn. 😉
I also know that some people cook with bacon grease. If you were going to do that, you’d want to avoid mixing the bacon grease with other rendered fats…chicken fat isn’t nearly as yummy as bacon grease.
Do you make your own stock? I’m a fairly accomplished cook but I have to admit I haven’t mastered stock. I’ve thrown bones from rotisserie chickens in a pot to boil them up, but the stock is salty and not particularly tasty. And it doesn’t seem very frugal to me to buy chicken backs and necks or beef bones just to make stock. Recipes from cookbooks also have you throw in vegetables that you fish out and throw away after making the stock. I’ve seen on frugal cooking blogs that people keep a bag in the freezer of vegetable trimmings to use for stock, but I don’t trim much off that isn’t moldy or gross. And how to make vegetarian stock that tastes good is a complete mystery to me. I’m also mystified by the occasional addition of vinegar.
I realize this isn’t a very summer-y topic for those of you in hot areas, but thought I’d throw it out in case you were gathering topics for the future. Would love to hear what you and your readers have to say!
Jenny S.
I do this occasionally when I have chicken bones around. My method isn’t particularly scientific…I just pour water over the bones and add in whatever random vegetable ends I have in my fridge (mostly I stick with onions, celery, and carrots). Fortunately (or not?) I usually seem to have some carrots and celery that have seen better days, so I don’t really feel like it’s a waste to use them in stock.
Sometimes I add some poultry seasonings, and then I just boil whatever is in the pot for, um, a while, maybe a half hour to an hour, depending on how much I’m cooking.
Then I strain the broth and pour it into Mason jars, which I refrigerate. I skim the fat off once it’s congealed (it goes into the afore-mentioned freezer container!) and then freeze the stock until I need it.
I have beef bones in my freezer, but I’ve yet to make stock with them. I hear that you really need beef meat to make good beef broth, and I’m loathe to use my beef for that purpose.
And if you were going to make good vegetarian stock, I’m guessing you’d have to use a goodly amount of vegetables. I wonder if you could make stock and then save the vegetables to make a pureed sort of soup. Although, then you might want to add the vegetable stock to that soup and then you wouldn’t have any left over.
Readers!! We need some help here. How do you make stock, especially beef stock or vegetarian stock?
Lesa
Sunday 14th of July 2013
Hi Kristen, I found your site after looking around for a "how to make yogurt from goats milk" search. Love your recipe. Turned out perfectly!
Anyway, making stock has to the easiest thing ever. My husband and I raise dairy goats and meat chickens (once a year - about 30 of them) He does the butchering, our son assists him. I can't kill anything so they bring the chickens to me looking like it came from the grocery! After cutting them up as I want, I toss the carcass' into my big stock pot. I throw in one onion, chopped up, carrots, celery, or whatever it is I have in my fridge that needs to go into the pot! I also throw in one chicken foot. My husband cuts off the toenails and into the pot it goes, after being washed of course. I cook the bones and whatever until I get the taste I personally like and then I strain it all. I find it fascinating how much more meat I get after cooking it. I do can my broth, so we do the pressure canning thing, I put alot of the meat into some of them. And, VIOLA you have chicken broth that people will beg you for.
As to beef stock. the trick is to broil or roast the leg bones until the bones are brown and the marrow is soft or melted. After the bones are roasted toss them into a stock pot, scrape the drippings off the bottom of the pan as well and pour water over it, toss in whatever veggies you want and it's the same as the chicken stock, minus the foot of course. Good luck on making stock, it's addicting and I get a perverse sense of satisfaction out of it because I made it.
Take care!
mobius
Saturday 22nd of December 2012
RE: bacon grease....the very best use I have come up with is to make homemade suet balls for birds in the winter. The internet has lots of recipes and it is cheap and a great kid friendly exercise. I would leave out peanut butter (not necessary) and hang in trees/outside in winter. In fact, I am making an outside bird friendly Christmas tree and hanging the suet up...you can put it in left over plastic mesh that the turkey comes in!!! Birds need the extra calories from the bacon fat in the winter. Add bird seed and/or oatmeal and/or sunflower seeds and/or crunched up peanuts and some nonfat dry milk....oh there are lots of possibilities. I have a pint jar about once a year and this is where it goes!!
Lisa H
Tuesday 19th of June 2012
The number one trick to making the best stock is adding water last!! I always chop up onions,celery(including leaves and the hearts) and carrots and saute in olive oil until very brown and caramelized. At this point I add garlic (we are big fans but not of burnt garlic!) and the saved bones,bits and skin (if available ) of the meat I making stock with. Continue cooking until meat has started to get brown and then add water...a little at first so you can scrape all the good bits off the bottom of the pot. Then cover and cook on low heat for at least 2 hours. I pressure can my stock so I always have a good supply on hand. If you want to freeze it, use ice cube trays . Once frozen put into ziplock bag or large container in freezer. This makes it easy to throw a little into the roasting pan bottom for gravy or to add just a bit to something. Vege stock is done the same way except you brown all vegtables and add water. I keep a bag in freezer for end pieces of celery,carrot peels,asparagus ends etc and use them in stock as well. If you don't peel your onions and just quarter when making chicken stock, the skins give a beautiful colour to the finished broth.
Kristen
Tuesday 19th of June 2012
Ooh, that does sound yummy. I've always added water first.
Elizabeth
Wednesday 6th of June 2012
I would also highly recommend using roasted chicken to make stock. I roast a whole chicken for dinner every couple of weeks. We carve off the regular cuts of meat and throw the carcass in the freezer. When we've got about four chickens-worth in the freezer I throw them in the big Dutch oven with any other leftover vegetables (carrot tops, leek tops, onions, celery, carrots...) and some herbs (bay leaf, thyme...) and simmer for up to six hours, adding boiling water as necessary. When the biggest bones feel squishy you know you've gotten all the gelatin out of them. I also don't add salt until the end.
Auntie Donna
Wednesday 6th of June 2012
Lazy no-waste broth or stock... when I cook a roast in the slow cooker, mostly in Winter, the 'juice' that is left makes the start of a pretty good broth(without bone) or stock (if the roast has a bone) consentrate. That is, once the roast is out, cook the liquid down by half to consentrate the flavor and so you aren't taking up room in your freezer just freezing water. I save it by freezing into icecube trays, then dump the cubes into a ziplock for longer storage. The broth freezes hard, the stock ones stay rubbery. For clear broth I put a coffee filter into a medium strainer with a bowl or pot under it to catch the clarified broth. This makes tasty 'Au Jus' for left over roast sandwiches with the roast onions sauted. If you saute the caught bits from the strainer, they are good in rice or pasta dishes. I tend to use the frozen cubes to add flavor to rice or pasta dishes and defrosted as liquid for gravy to my rue. But then maybe this way is cheating, because I put Worchesterchire, salt, pepper, onions,(sometimes whole garlic cloves), carrots and either potatoes or yams in with the roast then serve the veggies with the roast so there is no waste. I also use herbs, usually rosemary, thyme, and/or parsley, which seems to help the flavor a great deal.